MDU – MOTOR DRIVE UNIT
All the large parabolic ground station dishes require powerful yet gentle control to move their axes. Sometimes the antenna system
is unbalanced, very often the gears are worn, and this could cause tracking loss or pointing errors. Our MDU is designed to overcome
all the constraints that a stable and solid position control equipment can require, allowing a regular and precise positioning of the antenna beam.
The MDU can be equipped with standard servo-motor drives, up to two axes with double driver for each axis. It is an anti-backlash countertorque design. Analog and digital controls allow control of the legacy control unit or newly designed antenna control units to be interfaced and managed by a few connections and controls. The MDU’s standard maximum power for the 4-engine type is up to 16 KW,
but a special design could allow large devices to access extra power
SCU – SWITCH CONTROL UNIT
When there are remote switches to control, SCU is the easiest and cheapest solution. Using a serial communication line (RS232o RS485) allows the SCU to drive up to two switches (snap or error-proof, wave-guided, unipolar/multipolar coaxial ones), so that their position
can be monitored and controlled even remotely. Strong insulation is maintained between the controller and switches by means of optically coupled electronics or dry contact. SCU software is menu-driven and can allow flexible and easy setting of all working parameters.
The software is customizable for specific uses on special request (mini automation or automatic switchover).
AAAPC – ADVANCED ANTENNA ARRAY POWER CONTROL
This system is dedicated to continuously controlling large matrices of radiating elements such as array broadcasting or multi-feed complex antennas. Any malfunction of a single radiation element could be immediately detected and localized, as well as any kind of degradation of the radiation parameters of the malfunctioning branch.
All radiant elements/branches could be monitored with a specialized sensor that will give the basic parameters to monitor the health status of the branch in which it is installed.
By measuring the instantaneous incident power, its reflection coefficient along with the phase relationship between them, a magnitude and vector comparison could be made to establish the degradation quality of the radiation branch. This will allow a complete review of antennae branch’s health, where a single defective element amongst many healthy elements can be detected, drastically shortening the technical investigation on the whole radiant system to find out where the defect is.